WAR is almost here *twitch*

The highly anticipated Preview Weekend of WAR has come to a close. Roughly three weeks of beta remain until release date, and while there is still some polishing to do, the game is nearly done. As one of the lucky several thousand who managed to pre-order a Collectors Edition before they sold out, I was invited to join the Preview Weekend for an early look at the game.

Appearance

WAR has a very smooth look to it. Everything is highly detailed - not to the point that you'll be counting the individual beard hairs on a dwarf, but scenery is very well done, and long-time fans of the Warhammer setting will notice tons of little things here and there that just fit perfectly. Mythic has done an excellent job of bringing that setting to life.

Gameplay

WAR is fun. Not just fun in one or two ways, but overall - I've never been a big fan of PVP. Actually, thats putting it rather lightly - I've long been a vocal opponent of including PVP in EQ and EQ2, and still think that its a waste of developer time and talent in those games. With that being said, I honestly had a blast in pvp/rvr content in WAR, chasing down casters with my Ironbreaker while cackling madly. That is, until my dwarf's head started to melt - Sorcerers tend to hurt you, badly, if you don't catch them fast enough.

Interface

The default user interface works pretty well. While I did have a little trouble finding some things, like the tradeskill interface and quest items hidden in a special section of the backpack, I didn't have much difficultly finding the rest of the options.

Tome of Knowledge

The Tome of Knowledge is awesome beyond expectation. Not only does it keep track of EVERYTHING you do, it also has a pile of in depth lore that unlocks as you accomplish different things. When I say it tracks everything, I really do mean everything - you get unlocks for killing xx number of creatures, finding xx items, getting killed xx times, clicking on yourself xx times, everything... and offers various titles/rewards to go along with those things.

Tradeskills

Tradeskills are a bit limited, but have much potential. The setup is pretty basic, one container, one main ingredient, up to 3 secondary ingredients - at least for Apothecary, most trades aren't available to play in beta. You're limited to one harvesting skill and one tradeskill, so there is interdependency to some extent. Also, there isn't any 'recipe book' that I could find - it appears to be similar to how EQ1 tradeskills were originally, which is a bit of a downside. You may/may not skill up on a recipe, but the key thing is there is no chance involved on combines - either you have the skill to make it, or you can't try, and a recipe will automatically succeed if its a valid recipe.

Final thoughts

Levelling up at low levels comes quickly, and there is a ton to do - quests, pve, pvp/rvr, exploration... you can easily join nearby groups, and gameplay is fun - expect more news in the future before release, this is definitely going to be a successful game for at least a little while, hopefully long term...